Watch The Benny Goodman Story For Free

Don't listen to the negative reviews

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The fun of watching this movie is the music, of course, but other than that, it's a typical 50's whitewash kind of film. All the issues that existed at the time are glossed over. 1. No mention is made of the fact that Alice was married when they met, that they had an affair, and that her British husband divorced her for infidelity. She's portrayed (charmingly by Donna Reed) as an innocent rich girl. 2. The fact that Benny is Jewish and she's not is alluded to one time, but not even mentioned outright. 3. Race is completely ignored. There's this illusion that the black musicians were accepted everywhere, hotels, restaurants, 5th Ave. mansions. The Benny Goodman Story could be made today and tell the realities of the integration of the bands, and it would be a great story. The good parts--well, seeing Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, and Lionel Hampton portray themselves. All that talent on display! That was great. One last thing, the costumes. It was fun to see Alice's gorgeous 1950's dresses. But the movie was set in the 30s! WHY didn't they bother to put the cast in 1930's clothing? That part is just laugh out loud odd.

Having cleaned up with The Glenn Miller Story (a bio-pic of a trombone playing band leader) the previous year, Universal decided to cash in on what they hoped might develop into a trend with a second musical bio-pic but this time centred around a clarinet playing band leader. Accordingly they tapped the writer of the Glenn Miller Story, Valentine Davies to write the follow-up and even allowed him to direct what turned out to be his only movie. Alas, he opted for the wrong clarinet playing leader and gave us Benny Goodman instead of the far superior Artie Shaw, thus losing out on non-musical color (Shaw was a serial husband, urbane, and a polished writer whilst Goodman was a bad nowhere to a blancmange without a clarinet in his hand). Even as a musician Goodman lagged far behind Shaw, so what we are left with is one or two well-known tunes - One O'Clock Jump, Stompin' At The Savoy, Avalon, Don't Be That Way - and appearances by musicians long past their sell-by date such as Kid Ory, Harry James, Gene Krupa, Teddy Wilson, Lionel Hampton and the ubiquitous Ben Pollack who'd probably been sleeping in a dark corner of the Sound Stage since The Glenn Miller Story was wrapped a few months earlier. On the other hand it could and did get worse, Drum Crazy (The Gene Krupa Story) anyone? See if for the music.

Viewed from the point of view of a jazz fan interested in the history of swing, this movie is a treasure. There are moments all through when some of the true greats in jazz can be at least glimpsed, and some have ongoing parts: Buck Clayton, on trumpet, Teddy Wilson on piano, Gene Krupa, on drums, Lionel Hampton on vibes, Stan Getz on tenor saxophone (he was the farthest to the right on the front row--almost always cut out of the pan-and-scan print shown on TCM, but he has a great solo and closeup in one of the numbers, in the Palomar ballroom section). There are other stars who appear for one scene, but it's fun to see them, even briefly. Ziggy Elman plays his trumpet solo on "And the Angels Sing" glibly verbatim from the famous recording, but rushes, unfortunately. The plot is quite predictable, and there's no clinch at the end, just shining eyes. A must-buy for the jazz sentimentalist--but get the wide-screen version.

Benny Goodman is respected in jazz circles not only as the first virtuoso clarinetist in the field,but,more importantly and influentially,leading the first band to have both black and white musicians on the stage at the same time.In Ken Burns' epic TV series "Jazz" BG is one of the few white musicians to get much more than a token mention - his importance in the social history not only of jazz but of the very fabric of life in America cannot be overstated.After the success of "The Glenn Miller Story" it was inevitable that Miller's more talented contemporary would become the subject of a biopic - the major difference being BG was still alive. Although respected by his peers BG was not liked,he was not a tolerant man and was very conscious of his "star" status,if any of his sidemen got more applause than he did he would go into a sulk and cut the solo out the next night.Of necessity,the portrayal of him by Mr. Steve Allen was not very accurate,although there was a remarkable physical similarity. Mr Allen,a great jazz lover and a fine pianist,taught himself to play the clarinet for the role and made BG seem a bit like an absent-minded professor,until he picked up his horn. Miss Donna Reed,beautiful,talented and,sadly,rarely mentioned nowadays in film literature adds style and class as the future Mrs BG. The music is wonderful,as it should be with the cream of former Goodman alumni to choose from.There are featured roles for Mr Teddy Wilson,Mr Lionel Hampton and Mr Gene Krupa(soon to have his own biopic with Sal Mineo in the lead).Of the older generation Mr Ben Pollack and Mr Edward "Kid" Ory are particularly welcome. The climax to the film is the legendary Carnegie Hall concert of 1938. The movie led to a welcome resurgence of interest in BG's music and a lot of British jazzmen went into the recording studios with "hommage" Benny Goodman quartets which must have helped to pay the mortgage. With the aforementioned "Drum Crazy - The Gene Krupa Story",the jazz biopic craze fizzled out,although W.C.Handy got a look in with "St. Louis Blues - The Story of W.C.Handy",but it was dire and failed to put bums on seats. Not until Clint Eastwood's "Bird" did the genre revive,however temporarily.By then both the movies and their audience had changed irrevocably. I suspect if "The Benny Goodman Story" was to be remade today it would be less adulatory in tone.The one story that I think sums him up most accurately and not unpleasingly concerns a rehearsal conducted in an unheated room.One after the other,band members complained about the cold until BG finally looked up from his music stand and said"You're right,it is cold".He put his clarinet down and went out of the room.The musicians cheered up,thinking he had gone to arrange for some heating.Three minutes later he came back wearing a thick pullover.